


Shadows

by UnwrittenFantasies



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Batman - Freeform, Eccomiah, F/M, Harley Quinn - Freeform, Joker - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 13:38:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17448017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnwrittenFantasies/pseuds/UnwrittenFantasies
Summary: I suck at summaries, and I promise I will come up with a better blurb, but basically this story follows Ecco from when she was a young girl through meeting Jeremiah, up until becoming Mummer. It gets a little bit dark, so be warned.EccoxJeremiah, but the story is Ecco-centric.TRIGGER WARNING: Domestic abuse. Sexual assault in one chapter. I'll write a note before the chapter(s) so keep an eye out.ON HIATUS WHILE I TRY TO FIND INSPO





	1. The Carnival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey! It's been so long since I've written fanfiction, but I recently finished Gotham and I really need some Eccomiah content, so I decided to write some! In this chapter, Ecco is 11 and Jeremiah is 12, and Ecco's sister is about 4.

Ecco’s pigtails whipped her face. She turned to the gust of wind that had used her hair to smack her, glaring at the faceless villain. A flash of red caught her eye, and her head snapped towards a pair of twin redheads chasing each other. Well, on further inspection, she found that only one was chasing the other. The chaser’s hair was a bright red, and stuck out in all different directions like a fiery mess. He had on a giant grin that stretched to his ears. It made the blonde girl immediately feel uneasy. The chase-ee, on the other hand, wore a terrified expression, as if he were running for his life rather than just his brother. His hair was more of a dark auburn, and was neatly combed down to his head. Every so often he would have to push his too-large glasses up his nose. Both of the twin boys’ faces were identical, but it was easy to tell which was which, just by their demeanor and energies. A maniacal laughter cut sharply through the wind as the fiery-headed twin finally tackled the other. A chill raced up her spine as the two boys tumbled to the ground, but she couldn’t discern whether the goosebumps were from the biting wind or the boy’s cold laugh. “Jerome! Get off me!” yelled the boy with the glasses, his arms flailing and slapping the ground. His brother, Jerome, just grinned and continued to hold him down.

“Jerome! Please!” the pinned boy tried again. Jerome paused for a moment, before rolling his eyes and getting up, pulling his brother forcefully with him. Ecco noticed the brother wincing and rubbing his shoulder as Jerome stormed off. The brother sighed and patted down his already flat hair. As he pushed his glasses up his nose, his eyes caught Ecco’s. She felt herself blush in embarrassment at being caught watching, and, without thinking, her hand lifted and waved a little. He smiled and waved back, his face seeming to be twisted in thought. He came to his conclusion as he started making his way over to her. Ecco’s mouth felt dry and she didn’t know what to do. She settled for rubbing her clammy hands together, desperately trying to rid her palms of sweat that had accumulated there.

“Hey,” the red-headed boy greeted.

“Hi.” Her voice was soft and raspy, but rang loud and clear inside her head, causing her to inwardly cringe. There was a long pause of painfully awkward silence, before the boy robotically stuck out his hand.

“I’m, um, my name is Jeremiah.” Ecco, quickly and discreetly, wiped her hand on the back of her jeans before shaking his hand.

“Ecco.” He smiled.

“Nice name.”

“Thanks. I like it.” Ecco mentally slapped herself, but Jeremiah gave her a meek smile.

“Welcome to the circus,” he said, gesturing his arms out. He seemed unsure of this action, and quickly placed his lanky arms back down at his side. He quickly shook his head to himself, murmuring something that she couldn't hear. Ecco chose to ignore this.

“Oh, you work at the circus?”

“No, my mom does. She’s the snake dancer.” He pointed at a ratty old trailer. He sounded defensive, and Ecco wanted to apologise for whatever it was she said that offended him, but he cut her off before she could.

“Where are your parents?” As if on cue, Ecco heard her mother call her name. Jeremiah’s eyes flickered over her shoulder, and she turned to see her mother and sister making their way over. Her sister was holding a giant stuffed bear that was almost as big as she was.

“Ecco! Ecco! Look what Momma won for me!” Harley ran up to her big sister, proudly holding the bear in front of her.

“That’s cute!” Ecco exclaimed, patting Harley’s soft hair. The little girl beamed up at her, but her smile was laced with the smallest hint of sadness that only Ecco could spot.

“I wanted the biggest one, but Momma isn’t the best shot,” Harley said softly. Ecco looked back at her mother, who had stopped walking and was staring at Jeremiah with an indescribable look on her face. She hadn’t heard what her youngest daughter had said.

“Is that from Suri’s Shooting Range?” Jeremiah asked. He had backed up a little bit when Ecco’s family came, but he was still close enough to hear what was said. Harley seemed to notice him for the first time, and nodded violently.

“Suri used to let me and my brother, Jerome, play on that. We got pretty good. I can win it for you,” he offered, his voice shaky and unsure. Harley’s eyes brightened considerably, and she looked as though she was about to thank him, but then the two girl’s mother had cut in.

“That’s quite all right, thank you,” Ecco’s mother sharply said. She put her arm around her daughters’ backs protectively. She seemed to glare daggers at Jeremiah, who noticeably shrunk back into himself. “Ecco, is this a friend of yours? Or is he from the carnival?”

“My mom works here,” Jeremiah timidly said.

“Ah, I see. Well, boy, my daughter is fine with the prize I got for her, aren’t you, darling?” Harley nodded vigorously.

“I’m sorry, m’am, it’s just that I–”

“Run along, carnie, back to whatever your job was.” Jeremiah, shocked, stood stock-still. Ecco’s mother turned the two girls around and guided them away.

“Ecco, please don’t associate with the carnies. Especially the younger ones. They’re here to do their job, which is to entertain; they’re not here to socialise. They’re not nice children.” Ecco numbly nodded at her mother’s scathing words. Jeremiah had seemed nice. His brother, maybe not, but even that was probably just boyish sibling rivalry. But Jeremiah had even offered to help Harley win the bigger toy she wanted. She couldn’t understand why her mother was so adamant about her not talking to him.

She turned back to the red-headed boy, who was pushing his glasses up. She smiled sadly at him, but he didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he turned and scurried back to the trailer he had pointed out to her earlier. Dejectedly, Ecco turned back to her mother.

“Momma?”

“Yes, darling?”

“Can we go see the snake dancer later?”

Her mother furrowed her eyebrows. “Of course not. Harley is too young for snakes. She’ll be terrified.”

“She’ll be fine!” Ecco proclaimed. She nudged her younger sister. “Won’t you?”

“Won’t I what?” Harley ripped her attention away from her toy.

“You’ll be fine watching the snake dancer, won’t you?” Ecco tried to plead with Harley with her eyes, but the younger girl wasn’t getting it.

“No! Ew! Snakes are bad,” Harley said, pulling a face. Their mother threw a pointed look at her older daughter. Ecco turned back to where Jeremiah had been, then to the trailer. She only saw Jerome, sitting outside on a stone slab, using a pocket knife to carve into a block of wood. She sighed and turned back around. She could only hope she would accidentally run into Jeremiah during the rest of the day.

She didn’t, but she vowed to always remember him, and keep a lookout for the circus to come back around to her city.

After one week, she couldn’t place what he had looked like.

After one month, the name ‘Jeremiah’ had been completely wiped from her memory.

After one month and one day, her house burned down.


	2. The Orphanage

Ecco felt Harley shiver against her as they watched the frost gather on the window. It was a particularly cold night in the orphanage, and the two girls hair was still wet from their showers, which didn’t help much. The blankets were too thin to barricade them from the freezing air, so they had huddled together for warmth.

A flash of lightning illuminated the dark room, and then a clap of thunder, and Harley whimpered into Ecco’s shoulder. Ecco shushed her, rubbing soothing circles on her sister’s back. They were in for a long night.

She heard the girl in the bed next to her’s shifting in her sleep, and then everything was still again.

“Ecco?” Harley asked.

“Sh!” she whispered back, desperate to keep her sister quiet. If the staff members heard them speaking instead of sleeping, they would be in for it for sure.

“I’m scared.” Harley said, in a lower voice. Ecco nodded.

“I know you are. But don’t worry, I’m right here. I won’t ever leave your side.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” Despite her immediate confirmation, Ecco still had her doubts. Granted, she would never leave Harley by her own merit, but what if something terrible had happened to her, the way it had her mother? She remembered countless stormy nights when she was younger, before her father left and before her sister had been born. She remembered burying herself under thick blankets in her mother’s room, the flowery scent of her perfume engulfing her. She remembered her mother’s arms encircling her body, as she whispered promises into her ears, offering protection and safety.

Ecco desperately wanted to offer that to Harley, but she wasn’t sure she would be able to follow through. After all, her mother never could.

Her ears perked up as the voices of the staff wafted through the orphanage. She quickly shook Harley.

“Harley! Go back to your bed and pretend you’re asleep. Now!” Harley jumped to action. She ripped herself out of Ecco’s arms and rolled off the bed, racing over to he own. Ecco layed down and pulled the sheets up to her chin and closed her eyes, just in time for the head woman, Ms. Roman, to enter. Harley wasn’t so lucky. Her bed was on the opposite side of the large room, and she had just jumped onto it when Roman entered. Of course, her sharp eyes caught this movement in the dark, and she quietly dragged Harley out of the room.

Tears welled up in Ecco’s eyes as she heard her sister snivelling outside the door. She knew that staying up past curfew was worthy of punishment by holding a large stack of books straight out in front of you for an hour, and any wilting or bending of the elbow resulted in a harsh, quick whip of a ruler. Ecco could barely stand the weight of it as an eleven-year-old, so she could only imagine the pain Harley’s stubby four-year-old arms were in. She heard the unmistakable sound of a ruler hitting flesh, and Ecco winced.

She didn’t fall asleep until the twenty-third slap, when the hour had finally finished and she heard Harley trudge to her bed. Ecco let her eyes peek open and she watched as Harley turned her back to her, silent sobs wracking her body.

Ecco pushed back her own tears and turned around.

* * *

Harley was adopted when she was five.

For the first time in over a year, Ecco had opened her eyes to Harley’s empty bed. She had always been the one to wake up her sister, and the fact that she wasn’t sound asleep had alarm bells ringing in her head.

Where’s Harley?” she yelled, as she jumped out of her bed. The other girls, some of whom still in bed, some slowly milling around like zombies, looked at her with dumbfounded expressions.

“Where’s Harley?” she repeated, louder than before. Some of the girls continued to look confused, while some were shaking their heads and shrugging.

“Nobody knows,” one of the older girls piped up. The others nodded in agreement. Ecco marched over to the door and jiggled the knob. Locked, as usual. She banged her fists against the door as loudly as she could.

After a few rapid pounds, the door swung open to reveal a very angry looking Roman. She immediately slapped Ecco across the face.

“Silence!” she scolded. Ecco ignored her demands and the stinging handprint on her face.

“Where’s my sister?”

“That’s not of your concern.”

“It damn well is seeing as she’s my sister!” Roman refused to answer, just stood stock-still, willing Ecco with her eyes to stand down. Ecco wasn’t having any of it. She shoved the old woman.

“Tell–” shove “me–” shove “where–” shove “my sister–” shove “is!” She received a stinging slap in return, this time with enough force to send her to the ground.

“Send units up here. We’ve got a hostile,” she heard Roman say into her walkie talkie. By the time she had staggered back to her feet, two guards were by the older woman’s side.

“Where’s Harley?” Ecco panted.

“A couple adopted her two days ago and came to pick her up last night.” Roman answered as flippantly as humanly possible. Ecco saw red.

“What?” She lunged at Roman. She managed to land one good punch before the guards acted, holding her back. Ecco struggled against them.

“You bitch! That’s my sister!” she screamed, punching the guards’ arms, but to no avail. Roman simply smiled at her.

“Not anymore.” Roman turned and walked down the hall. Ecco tried one last desperate attempt to go after the old hag, but the guards held her back. As soon as Roman was out of sight, the guards threw her back into the room and locked the door.

Ecco ran to the door and rammed her body against it, desperate to get it open. It wouldn’t budge. She rested her back against the door and slid down, burying her head in her knees. And, for the first time since her father left, Ecco cried. She could feel every girl’s wide eyes staring at her, but she didn’t care.

Her sister was gone.

* * *

 

The police shut down the orphanage five months later. It was all thanks to Thomas and Martha Wayne, who had previously owned the place. According to the paper and word of mouth, the rich couple had decided to have a benefit for the poor orphanage, and, in order to plead their case better, went undercover into the place. Shocked at all the illegal activities and child abuse the orphanage had been condoning, they immediately called the police to shut down the place.

Which meant that there were about sixty kids with nowhere to go.

The Waynes meant well, Ecco knew that. Their pride and morality forbade them from continuing to fund such horrors. They were working tirelessly to ensure the orphans a good home, but, unsurprisingly, there weren’t a lot of takers. The Waynes fought to keep the orphanage open for as long as they could, until all the kids had found a home, but it was just a matter of time before they couldn’t hold down any more.

Everyday, either one of or both of the Waynes would come and oversee the orphanage. On weekends it was both; weekdays they would switch on and off. Thomas was a stoic and a professional, while Martha had tried her hardest to learn every single orphan’s name, a feat proving to be nearly impossible. Both were good people, Ecco could tell from the moment they stepped foot in there.

Being one of the older kids at eleven years and eleven months, Ecco had gotten to know Thomas and Martha Wayne, over the past month. She had been one of the girls who they had called in for questioning, and Ecco hadn’t hesitated before letting them know what was going on. She told them about the beatings, the locked doors, the lack of education, the unsanitary conditions. She told them about her sister, who had been taken away from her in the dead of the night. Martha had placed her hand on hers upon hearing this, while Thomas nodded gravely.

That day was a particularly busy day. Martha Wayne had arrived by herself, a giant beam on her face that suggested good news. She rallied in all the orphans’ attentions, and announced that last night, a surge of volunteers had offered to take in a bunch of the children. The little ones got top priority, as they were the most fragile and in the worst shape, and by the time they had gotten to Ecco’s age group, there were no more volunteers. Martha was still trying vainly trying to get the volunteers to take in more kids, but not many were saying yes.

“Martha?” Ecco called. The blonde’s head shot up from the five-year-old she was comforting. Ecco waved at her to let her know who had called her, and she nodded for Ecco to wait. Martha bent back down to the five-year-old, rubber his arm, then pointed him in the direction of his new foster parents. Once the boy had safely made his way over to the couple, Martha quickly walked over to Ecco.

“Ecco, it’s nice to see you again dear,” Martha greeted her pleasantly. Her smile seemed forced though. Ecco hated forced smiles.

“What is it?” Martha blinked at the young orphan’s curtness.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand. You  _ are _ the one who called  _ me _ over,” Martha answered. Ecco sighed.

“You’ve been avoiding me since you got here.”

“No I haven’t.”

“Yes you have. Normally you come straight to me to talk to me about my sister.” Martha’s head hung down, and Ecco’s eyes softened. “This is about her, isn’t it? Did you find her? What’s going on?”

“Ecco, honey, I–” Martha started. She thought about her next words very carefully, before continuing. “I am so sorry. My husband and I poured everything we had into finding homes for all these children and reuniting you with your sister. But none of the orphanage’s records even mention a Harleen–”

“You think I’m lying.”  
“No, of course not.” She sighed, rubbing her temples. “Ecco, there is no way to find a person who doesn’t exist.”

“She exists!” Ecco couldn’t believe what she had been hearing.

“Not on paper she doesn’t! We have no information about who adopted her, about where she was born, anything! There’s no documents proving her existence.”

“You promised me you’d find her!” She felt her rage bubbling underneath the surface, threatening to explode and take everything with it. The Waynes were meant to be a beacon of hope, and yet, they failed at everything. They failed at finding her sister, they failed at finding homes for even half the orphans, and soon they’d be failing to keep the orphanage running.

“I tried my best,” Martha softly said. She didn’t want to cause the young girl any more grief than she already had in her short life, but there was truly no more she and Thomas could do. To her shock, Ecco shoved her, hard, in the chest, sending her tumbling to the ground. The normally sweet girl had a fire in her eyes, a fire that terrified Martha.

“Fuck you.” It was a jolt to hear such harsh language coming out from an eleven-year-old’s mouth, and for it to be directed at her, one of the only two adults here to help, was upsetting.

Ecco marched past Martha and stormed out of the orphanage. She wasn’t gone for good, not by a long shot. After all, where would she go? But she was done with the Wayne family. They couldn’t help her anymore. They could put her in a foster home all they liked, but she had no family without her sister.

When she returned to the building an hour and a half later, Martha had already left, and the place was half empty without the younger orphans running around. There was, however, one more grumpy looking family waiting for her. Martha had finally managed to convince them to take in one more orphan. And, as a token of her apology, she had chosen Ecco to be that lucky orphan.

Ecco didn’t feel lucky. Even as she rode their crowded car back to her new house in Gotham City, with an abundance of new people who had all promised to be her surrogate family, she felt empty. She felt alone.

She looked out the window and wondered whether or not Harley was out there, nearby, feeling just as alone as she did.

Nearby, someone else had just been ripped away from his twin, and was feeling just as alone as she was, only he inflicted that on himself.


	3. Gotham

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: DOMESTIC ABUSE

Ecco kept her eyes glued to the car window as the country’s trees whizzed by. They were just miles away from the bridge that connected to Gotham, her hometown, and all she could feel was a sick churning in her stomach. She thought about Elizabeth, her adoptive mother, who had said goodbye to her with tears in her eyes. Ecco remembered laughing at the woman; it wasn’t like they would never see each other. There was something called visiting. And besides, she was excited to finally move back to Gotham after she was adopted five years ago. But, as the car got closer and closer to the stinking city, Ecco’s body filled more and more with dread.

She felt a cold hand grip her upper thigh and squeeze. Ecco held herself back from jumping, and calmed herself down enough to turn and smile at her boyfriend. Luckily, his eyes did not stray from the road, so he couldn’t see how forced it was.

“You excited?” he asked, the grip on her thigh still just as tight. Ecco winced and nodded.

“Yep,” she forced out. His eyebrows furrowed.

“You don’t sound excited. What, you having cold feet now?” There was an edge to his tone. He didn’t want her to change her mind about this, especially not after all the trouble he went through to set this up for them. Ecco knew this, and she didn’t want him to think that she didn’t want this.

“No, Mark, I’m excited. Just a little bit nervous,” she assured him. He nodded. The grip on her thigh tightened for a moment, then completely disappeared. Ecco fought the urge to rub her thigh, a reflex of her averse to physical affection that really didn’t mean anything. Her eyes turned back to the window, and she could see finally see the bridges stretching out in front of them. For a moment, she marveled at the giant arches; at how this was the city’s only anchor to the mainland. But then she heard Mark whoop right next to her ear and she blinked out of it, turning her ear away from her boyfriend with a wince.

“This is gonna be a new start for us,” he exclaimed. His hands drummed against the steering wheel. He grinned at Ecco, who smiled weakly back.

A new start for him, perhaps. He’d grown up in New Jersey. For her, she was going back to the same place that caused her so much pain so many years ago. The orphanage, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne, her mother, her sister…

_ Her sister _ .

She wondered, not for the first time, if her sister was still in Gotham. If she was, would Ecco recognise her? She liked to think she would, but the last time she’d seen her sister was a long time ago, and Harley would have grown a lot since then. Some kids, like Ecco’s, appearance didn’t change as they got older, but some look like a completely different person. Harley could’ve been one of those kids.

If Harley was still in Gotham, Ecco wondered if they would bump into each other. And if they would, and if Harley looked different, Ecco thought that something would click inside of her. That she would instantly know that this was her sister. It didn’t even matter if Harley got a new face; she would know. And that thought brought her a little comfort.

Seventeen years old and all alone in the city. Ecco would need a companion.

She shook her head. She did have a companion. Mark was there. He would always be there.

For some reason, that didn’t make her feel any less alone.

 

***

 

The smell of the apartment burned her nostrils. Two weeks stuck there, and she still couldn’t get over the smell. Mark, while distastefully wrinkling his nose when they first entered the place, seemed to get used to it quickly. It wasn’t too bad, he’d argued. It wasn’t like it smelled like feces. She’d asked him if they could find a new place, but he told her to get over it. It would still be a while before he could gather enough money to find them a decent place to live. And besides, it wasn’t like  _ she _ was doing much to help.

The last statement stung. It wasn’t like she didn’t  _ try  _ to get a job, but Mark was never at the apartment, and the door was flimsy, and they didn’t live in a particularly good neighbourhood, so she had to stay at the apartment to tend the place and make sure there were no intruders.

Ecco was constantly paranoid that someone would knock down that door to rob them, then end up killing her. Somedays, she would spend the afternoon sitting on a chair facing the splintered door, pepper spray or heavy book or a rock she found on the street in hand, ready to confront a potential attacker. Some days, she would spend hours like that, until she finally felt tired enough to go upstairs to bed.

One day, Ecco had consumed coffee to keep her jumpy and awake. On this particular day, her weapon of choice was the thickest book in her suitcase: a tour guide to Gotham, given to her by her old friend from New Jersey. She didn’t know why she brought it; she wasn’t in Gotham to go sightseeing or whatever, but her friend had insisted, and Ecco felt bad for spending all her time with Mark and not enough with her. With the book in hand, she had drawn out her usual chair in front of the door, and sat there, waiting. The excessive amounts of coffee in her system had put her on high-alert, so much so that the slightest sound, such as a neighbour’s familiar footsteps, caused her to jump. As night fell and the clock came closer and closer to midnight, the sounds of the neighbours fell quiet, and was replaced by an eerie silence.

Then the doorknob jiggled.

Ecco sprung to action immediately. She raced to the spot right next to the door, and waited until the intruder came in. The doorknob continued to jiggle for a bit, as if the unknown intruder was having difficulty picking the lock open. Finally, the doorknob slowly turned, and the door started to creak open, and Ecco was ready to attack.

As soon as the door opened wide enough, Ecco jumped forward and slammed the book across the intruder’s head, who yelled in a mixture of shock and pain. His head bent forward and his hands went up to where she had hit him, and, without thinking, Ecco brought her knee up to his groin. He screamed in pain and doubled over, and finally, Ecco’s head cleared enough for her to see who this was.

_ Mark _ .

Ecco’s mind immediately went into panic mode. How could she have done that to him? Was she really so out of control and paranoid that she beat her boyfriend. Her hands went up to her mouth in shock, as Mark stayed hunched over, yelling so many curses at her the words seemed to meld together.

“Oh my god, Mark, I’m so sorry. I–I thought–”

“What the  _ fucking hell _ woman? Are out of your fucking mind?” He yelled back at her, face red with pain. Ecco’s hands shook.

“I–I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. Let me get you some ice.” Ecco dashed into the kitchen and opened the freezer, which was empty except for a bag of frozen peas. She quickly grabbed it and ran back over to her pained boyfriend.

“There was no ice. This is all we had–” Mark snatched it from her and pressed it against his groin. He winced, then sighed in relief. A few more agonizing moments of silence passed between them, before Mark finally staggered to his feet. He slammed the front door shut as he did, and pointed to the book laying on the floor.

“What the fuck is that?”

“It’s a book. I–”

“Where did you get it?”

“My friend gave it to me. You remember Kaylee–” Mark huffed and spat on the book. Ecco squeezed her eyes shut, knowing that she’d be the one to have to clean that up later. Mark glared at her, and she cowered underneath his gaze. Then, he roughly pushed past her and into the kitchen to put the peas away.Ecco noticed him sway as he walked, almost as if he was getting increasingly more dizzy. It dawned on her, then. Why he had trouble with the door lock. Why he was home so late every night. Why his speech was slurred as he swore at her over, and over, and over again.

He was drunk. And Ecco was enraged. She stormed into the kitchen and tapped Mark on the shoulder, who spun around so fast he had to stand there for a moment, blinking furiously, before his eyes settled on her.

“You’re drunk!” Ecco exclaimed. Mark scoffed at her.

“So what?”

“I can’t believe you!”

“So what if I went to the bar after work and had a couple of drinks? What’s it to you?”

“What’s it to me?  _ What’s it to me _ ?” Ecco couldn’t believe this. She gestured wildly around the apartment. Was he not seeing what she was? “Do you not see this? We’re  _ poor _ , Mark! I have been eating scraps ever since we moved here! For fuck’s sake, Mark, we can’t even afford ice! This place is a shithole, and you  _ promised _ me that once you gathered enough money, we’d move to a new, better place, and now I’ve found out you’ve been blowing all our money on alcohol?”

“Chill the fuck out woman. It was just one night.”

“Then where have you been all the other nights? Because I go to sleep at ten, and I know damn well your work shift ends two hours before that.” Mark glowered at her, but Ecco forced herself not to back off. When she refused to hide under his shadow, he did something that shocked even her.

He slapped her. Hard. Across the face. Her hand immediately went up to the stinging on her face.

“I do all the work around here. Earn all the money. If I want to spend some for myself, I will. If you want to be a whiny cunt about it, go out and get a job. I’m tired of babysitting you.” Ecco refused to look at him. Instead, she dashed around him and collapsed onto the mattress (they couldn’t afford a bed frame), her back facing the kitchen. She closed her mind, but the stinging on her face in addition to the coffee still ingrained in her brain was refusing to let her fall asleep.

What seemed like hours later, she heard Mark finally sigh and stumble his way to the mattress. She felt it dip as he threw himself down.

“Ecco?” He whispered. She didn’t answer.

“Ecco, are you awake?” She nodded.

“Ecco I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you. I was just angry and drunk.” She waited for him to continue his apology, but he didn’t. “Are we okay?” he asked instead. She paused for a moment, but when he nudged her ribs with his elbow, she nodded.

Satisfied with this answer, he turned onto his side and encircled his arms around Ecco, forever imprisoning her in the suffocating grasp he seemed to hold over her life. Something deep inside her screamed that she needed to get out, but she didn’t know how.

Ecco got no sleep that night.


End file.
